STUDY: #ethanol blends cut toxic hydrocarbon emissions up to 96%

Ethanol and other biofuels are often touted for their ability to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by replacing fossil fuels. Traditional biofuels like ethanol can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 19-48 percent compared with gasoline, while advanced or cellulosic biofuels can reduce emissions by more than 100 percent. A less-recognized benefit of biofuels is their ability to reduce other harmful emissions that are found in gasoline exhaust. A new study out of the Swiss Federal Laboratories quantifies the emissions reductions that ethanol blends like E10 (10 percent ethanol) and E85 (85 percent ethanol) achieve compared with traditional gasoline, or E0. The study analyzed and compared emissions of nanoparticles, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and alkyl- and nitro- PAHs. The authors found that using ethanol blends significantly decreased these harmful emissions. A ...